Getting ready for some clean up and axle swap.



Bed pulled with engine lift.



Will wire brush frame and use por 15 on it.

 

Frame looks pretty solid, good that you're protecting it now!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbugden

Frame looks pretty solid, good that you're protecting it now!

Thanks, The truck has 83,000 actual miles. A few years back, I took apart all the front suspension and coated the frame up front with por 15 and then black rustolum over that. Seems to be holding up pretty well.

 

Great pic...how difficult was it to get the bolts out?

 

Not my thread but I'll just interject to say that on my old completely rotted out and broken swiss cheese frame, the bed bolts all spun out with ease, and we're all perfectly reusable. As always, your experience may vary but I think my truck represented just about as bad a situation for removing fasteners as you could imagine in a vehicle.

 

Same experience for me on my 90....removing the bed was one of the easier jobs I tackled in regards to things old and rusted. The worse was upper control arm ball joints. Took a 12 ton press to get those to pop out.

 

As the others said, came out easy, and I was worried about that.
It was 9 bolts, 4 screws that hold the gas filler neck, and 3 wiring plugs.
Also, I took the bumper off. As I plan to paint the frame and didnt want to chance scratching the paint on the bed.....

 

Suggestion while it's off?

Do the fuel pump, rebuild the sending unit (if it's not available anymore; replace if it is!), and replace ALL the rubber at the gas tank.

You'll thank me for it when you don't have to pull the bed in six months.

RwP

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by RalphP

Suggestion while it's off?

Do the fuel pump, rebuild the sending unit (if it's not available anymore; replace if it is!), and replace ALL the rubber at the gas tank.

You'll thank me for it when you don't have to pull the bed in six months.

RwP

Hey Ralph,

Thanks for your advise!! My truck is unique in that its the only year that had a mechanical fuel pump. Never the less, I have a carter 4070 external electric pump installed (for now) in anticipation of putting a carbed 5.9 magnum in the truck.
I do need a new rubber grommet where the filler goes into the tank.
Hopefully I will get the tank dropped out of the truck, for now, and paint the frame etc.

In the future, I want to swap the tank for one with a internal fuel pump. (external is noisy and I suspect not as reliable.) Do you have any idea what all will bolt in? ie: second gen. trucks? Or durango's?
FWIW 1st gens are getting harder to find around my area at least!!

 

It's a fairly safe bet that 1st gen tanks will fit.

Since it's mechanical pump now, you'll probably need to add a pressure regulator to whatever you use; I'd go for an earlier 1st gen when they had the bypass style regulator at the motor (1988 to 1993 IIRC) instead of the later ones with the regulator built into the pump assembly, but that's just me.

(1988's fuel gauge sender is also fixable for the common causes of no-gauge; something else to fix while the bed is currently off.)

The biggest problem here is that the tanks are at the very least drilled through to drain, if not cut right in half, at most boneyards.

RwP